Mott MacDonald has been awarded a contract by Shell UK to provide project management organisation services during the front end engineering design (FEED) phase of the Peterhead carbon capture and storage project in northeast Scotland.

The project, which is part of the UK government’s CCS Commercialisation Programme, involves the capture, compression and transportation of CO2 from the existing Peterhead power station to long-term storage sites deep under the seabed of the North Sea.

The contract, which is already under way, sees Mott MacDonald providing owner’s engineer services to Shell for the onshore FEED study phase, as well as technical interface and project management support across the entire end-to-end CCS chain.

This contract supports a core team of five Mott MacDonald employees throughout the two-year project duration, with a larger part-time team of up to 30 staff during peak periods to support the various engineering disciplines and project roles required to deliver the overall scope.

David Brown, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: "We are delighted to be working on this world-leading project, which builds on our relationship and knowledge from previously working with Shell on the Longannet CCS project." The consultancy’s commission is due to be completed in 2015.